An entertaining and authoritative study of leadership in the British civil service from one of the top authors in the field. Kevin Theakston draws the lessons of how change in central government can be managed and implemented from a series of biographical studies of the acknowledged leaders in the civil service in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - from Charles Trevelyan, the founder of the modern civil service, to modern Mandarins such as Robert Armstrong and Margaret Thatcher's personal adviser the outsider Sir Derek Rayner. The case studies are linked to the wider themes of leadership and administrative culture in Whitehall, illustrating the patterns of change and continuity over time. This highly readable and innovative study will appeal to students of British politics and government, public administration, public policy, political history and comparative politics as well as policymakers, civil servants and others interested in the policymaking and governing process.

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Reviews

Theakston shows that individual actors matter, and they can have significant impact...but his writing is informative and stimulating: indeed, the book is that rarity in academic publications - an enjoyable read!' - Robert Pyper, Parliamentary Affairs

Authors and Affiliations

University of Leeds, UK

Kevin Theakston

About the author

KEVIN THEAKSTON is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Leeds and the author of Junior Ministers in British Government, The Labour Party and Whitehall and The Civil Service in 1945. He is among the best known writers on the British Civil Service. This book arises from his research for the ESRC Whitehall Programme. His accompanying edited volume on Bureaucrats and Leadership covering Britain, Europe and the United States will also be published in the Transforming Government series.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Leadership in Whitehall
Authors: Kevin Theakston
Series Title: Transforming Government
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27226-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies Collection, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 1999
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-333-74967-8Published: 13 January 1999
eBook ISBN: 978-1-349-27226-6Published: 27 July 2016
Series ISSN: 2946-9309
Series E-ISSN: 2946-9317
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 266
Topics: British Politics, Social History, Political Science, Industries

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

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